Devotionals

In its liturgical form, the Lord’s Prayer begins and ends with God’s holy name, His kingdom, and His glory. The church has been wise in this, and we can learn from the saints who have gone before us that we ...Read More

First Timothy 3:15 calls the church “a pillar and buttress of the truth,” holding up the truth before the world. Yet if the church is not grounded in the truth, it cannot hold it up before the world. Therefore, insofar ...Read More

The action of Jesus’ disciples’ shaking the dust off of their feet did not symbolize that everyone who rejected them was at that moment irrevocably doomed. Since the people would have understood the action as marking them off as unclean, ...Read More

Today, we hear a lot about the need for diversity. But as we see from the political system and nations around the world, diversity without unity leads to infighting and even civil war. Scripture does call God’s people to embrace ...Read More

Take some time today to skim Mark’s gospel and the outline of Jesus’ life that it tells. Pick one or two passages to consider more carefully and reflect on what they say about the Son of God and His mission. ...Read More

Many commentators note that this passage can also be applied to the sins of the righteous person. Matthew Henry comments, “The just man falls, sometimes falls seven times perhaps, into sin, sins of infirmity, through the surprise of temptation; but ...Read More

Many people do not spend enough time studying the Word of God, but some “study” too much. That is, they continually ask questions for which they do not really want God’s answer. Our goal should not be to come to ...Read More

We can be tempted to give up when dissension and misunderstanding abound or we are facing many other problems. While we do not want to minimize our difficulties, we should also take care to look around us and see if ...Read More

Human beings process information through the five senses, so all five senses are engaged in all that we do, including worship. Though different traditions may take different views as to how the liturgy should appeal to the five senses, all ...Read More

The propriety of visual imagery in the church building continues to be debated within the Reformed tradition. What we can all agree on, however, is that God is supremely beautiful (Ps. 27:4). In our worship and teaching, we must draw ...Read More